Native Instruments has announced the release of Playbox, the latest addition to their range of Kontakt-based instruments.
Birthed as a passion project from creators Antonio de Spirt, Mickaël Le Goff and Nadine Raihani, Playbox aims to offer users an instant solution to writer's block.
Nadine, who began building Playbox in her free time "as a fun and useful tool to refresh her workflow and kickstart creativity", explains:
Our goal as creators was to establish a sound library that didn't just focus on one specific sound, but instead explored the full spectrum of sounds available to us, and embraced the happy accidents you come across when working with randomization.
Playbox combines chord generation and sample layering with randomization, to produce one-of-a-kind sounds playable with just one finger. At the roll of a dice, the instrument will randomize and blend between 905 immersive samples, 224 chord sets, and 217 effects presets, to help spark new musical ideas.
Catering for beatmakers to composers, hobbyists to professionals, Playbox strives to be accessible to all, lending inspiration regardless of genre or skill.
Nadine:
One of the goals of Playbox is to pick people up at whatever level they're at. Whether they're a professional sound designer or a first-time producer, everyone has the ability to customize their sound, use their own samples and utilize their own chords.
Mickaël:
A beginner can press one button, quickly randomize, and come across an interesting sound that can inspire their entire workflow. With the same instrument, more advanced users can really dig into Playbox's possibilities by adding their own samples and creating something brand new.
Loaded with a spectrum of tweakable sounds straight out of the box, Playbox allows creators to layer a variety of samples, from synths, instruments, bass, voices, and noise, to each note in a chord, for unheard combinations of multi-stacked sounds. Users can also import up to 450 of their own samples, that are automatically re-pitched to the notes of a chord, to revive old sample libraries collecting hard drive dust.
In this walkthrough video NI's Head of UX & Market Research and one of the three Playbox creators, Nadine Raihani, explains some of the instrument's key features, and showcases how it can be used to kickstart ideas and refresh workflow: YouTube.com/watch?v=PxtpT02yLxo
Pricing & Availability
Playbox is available from the Native Instruments online shop, with a 25% discount until April 24, 2022, or unlockable via NI's Komplete Now monthly subscription.
Price: EUR 149 / USD 149 / YEN 20100 / GBP 129 / AUD 219 / CAD 199 / CHF 159 / CNY 1199.
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